Solutions that don’t break the bank, reinvent the wheel or marginalize our teachers are within our grasp. We could have rigorous classes, safe and disciplined schools and treat teachers like valued colleagues rather than easily replaceable cogs, and we could do so tomorrow if we wanted. Disclaimer, this is an opinion and commentary site and should not be confused as a news site. Also know that quite often people may disagree with the opinions posted.

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Monday, May 12, 2014

Denise Amos leaves a lot out in her Florida Times Union voucher piece.

Mrs. Amos has really elevated education reporting here in
the city; unfortunately she left a fair amount of relative and important
information out of her piece about vouchers.

First I believe she should have mentioned that Jason Fischer
took 500 dollars from John Kirtley, the Tampa millionaire that runs Step up for
Students, the states voucher organization.

Then she should have mentioned how Slate Magazine reported
that 164 Florida schools, the second most in the nation, that take money for
vouchers teach creationism as science including over a dozen in Jacksonville.

I think the people should also know that the modest voucher
bill was only passed on the last day of the session when a 141 page amendment
was folded into a popular bill that had already passed an unprecedented move
and that ninety percent of the schools that receive vouchers are religious
schools.

Furthermore people should know that during the legislative
session Step up for Students the group that administers vouchers admitted that
they use public money to lobby for more public money and their waiting list is
kept on the back of an envelope.

Then finally she should have mentioned how at the beginning of
the legislative session, voucher proponents were basically offered the key to
the treasury if they would have just accepted
some legitimate accountability measures but instead of taking hundreds of
millions more to help the students they claim are desperate for vouchers, they
fought tooth and nail against them. Which begs the question why is
accountability only good for public schools and even if they don’t think accountability
is important why let the good be the enemy of the perfect? Why not take the
money?

I believe they fought against it because they knew if they
had to have stringent accountability measures, vouchers would have collapsed
like a house of cards and to be honest why would we expect any less. Teachers at
private schools don’t have to be certified let alone have degrees and their
curriculums don’t have to be recognized.

Vouchers, which are a thinly veiled attempt to fund religious
education, and should the public really be funding people’s religious choices,
are a bad deal, but what is worse is when the public gets an incomplete picture
of what is going on.